A/N: Welcome to chapter 14! Not much to say so I won't hold you up- Enjoy!
By the time they returned to base, Torn was visibly twitching in his seat, obviously nervous about something. Sake was the first to break the ice.
"What's got you so wound up. News about Tess?"
"No, but one of my old Guard comrades was sent to the pumping station this morning and There's been no word from the patrol. After what you guys ran into out there, I'm afraid she may need some help." All the while, Daxter was hard at work making obnoxious faces each time the overhead light swung his way.
"Did you say 'she'?" Jak asked, more surprised than intrigued. Torn scowled, which wasn't much different from his usual expression of 'get away from me or I'll slit your throat'.
"Don't even think about it." Then he noticed the Ottsel's antics and put a hand on the lamp. "STOP THAT! This is serious you moron!" Daxter only jumped a little at the man's outburst, but put both hands in the air as if ready to strike as Jak raised his hand to knock some sense into the animal.
"HoooWAH! That's right, Don't mess with the sugar!"
"This friend of mine has helped the Underground many times before. Go back to the Pumping Station and take a look around. Render assistance if needed." Torn's steely blue eyes bored holes into Daxter as he glared still at the Ottsel. "Not get your SQUIRELY ass outta here." He slammed his palm into the table for emphasis before storming off to the back curtain.
Daxter blew a raspberry and Jak rolled his eyes, grabbing Daxter by the scruff of his neck before planting him back on his shoulder.
As they left, a few of the Underground's other fighters brought the supplies from the Bizarre inside. Sake noticed one of them- a shorter, lanky man with a bald, shaven head making a phone call. He seemed a little fidgety, nervous even, but she didn't have the time to question his behavior as she climbed onto a zoomer with Jak and they sped out of the alleyway.
"We've searched every inch of this beach. I don't SEE any evidence of a patrol, so why are we still looking?" Daxter groaned. The day's bright warm sun had begun to drift behind the horizon, bathing the Pumping Station in an array of oranges and yellows as the sky began to dot purple like it was painted by an epileptic artist.
"Well, Don't KG's ride around in those big ugly zoomers? Maybe she didn't walk?" Sake considered aloud, more to herself than anyone in particular though Jak nodded in agreement.
"Going up, then."
With a little effort, the teens found a steep stone edifice with just enough hand and foot holds to make their way to the top. It was the only place they hadn't searched yet. Sake had to continuously remind herself not to look down while Jak seemed preternaturally at home in the steep landscapes as he scaled it effortlessly.
Once she reached the top, he helped her up and they took a moment to scan the area. The top of the rock was heavily forested with palms and razor grass but Sake could see the solid straight outlines of carved stone pillars and rocks from an old demolished structure coated in a carpet of vines and mushrooms.
"Ruins of some kind, I think." Jak commented, noticing her probative stare. "There, a clearing, and a Zoomer."
As they approached, Daxter dove from his shoulder and ran up to the Zoomer.
"What the heck are we doing risking our lives for some old Krimzon Guard hag anyways? She's probably got more facial hair than me." He squatted low, using one foot to scratch at the base of his chin.
Suddenly the trees overhead ruffled and something fell, immediately grabbing Jak by the neck. Sake found herself staring down the barrel of a pistol and she reflexively put her hands in the air.
"Who the hell are you three?!" The woman barked, a tall slender red head with a body taken straight out of a guy's magazine. Sake noticed she had a knife pressed dangerously close to Jak's neck, though he didn't seem the least bit worried or afraid. Daxter was grinning from ear to ear.
"Mmmmm I do love a woman in uniform! Wanna bark some orders at me? Woof, woof!" He jumped onto the woman's arm, using Jak's head for balance. The woman looked far less impressed by the Ottsel's perverted antics, even a little disgusted, not that Sake blamed her. "I'm your soldier on the front lines of love! Waiter, foxhole for two!"
"Keep talking and I'll raise your voice a couple of octaves." Daxter found himself staring down the barrel of a pistol.
"Easy.. Torn asked us to help you." Jak was pushed aside, rubbing at his throat with one hand while waving at the air with the other to try and coax the woman to disarm herself. She sheathed the knife.
"I don't need help. But you might- We've got company."
The bodies quickly piled up, and in just a matter of minutes, the gunslingers had taken out close to fifty Metal Heads. What was left still alive shrieked in fear and made a mad dash for escape, only to be mowed down until not a single beast remained. The woman holstered her gun and made for her Zoomer like a fire had been lit beneath her, climbing in and taking a seat.
"Watching you take care of those Metal Heads was uuhh pretty.. Exciting, wasn't it sugar?" Daxter said with a grin, eying his nails nonchalantly. Just then he was blown back by the gust of air beneath the massive zoomer as it started. "Hey! Sweet stripes!" The Ottsel could barely maintain posture against the exhaust. "Gimme them digits so I can look ya up sometime! We'll party hard, big city style!"
Naturally, the woman was unimpressed and ignored the animal's advances. "Tell Torn Baron Praxis is planning something big- I think it has to do with that symbol!" She pointed to a stone pedestal topped with a metal emblem that reminded Sake of a yin and yang.
"What is it?!" Jak shouted over the roar of the zoomer.
"Its the Seal of the House of Mar, the Founder of Haven City. We're being sent out on suicide missions to locate artifacts from the time of his rule. If curiosity is worth dying for, you can ask the blind, old soothsayer in the Bizarre named Onin. She might know something about all this. By the way, the name's Ashlein. We're even now." Stiffly, Ashlein took the controls and raised the Zoomer high into the air before taking off back in the direction of Haven.
"Wow, what a woman! Raawwrr.." Daxter clawed at the air and gave a teasing growl, making the teens shake their head.
"Jak, I don't think those Metal Heads were here on patrol. Too many of them, too quickly. Think they were waiting for us?" Sake walked back over to one of the many corpses and began prying the stone from its forehead. Jak joined her.
"Maybe. The Metal Heads were definitely targeting this place though. I think we were just a bonus."
"Still got that Bizarre pass from Torn?" She grunted, struggling to pull a gem from one of the larger creatures.
"Yeah. We'll take care of it tomorrow though. The city isn't safe at night."
"Aha, right, well whatever you say. I could use the rest and a shower anyways."
The trio finished collecting gems, stashing them in their bags before making the climb back down to the station's walkways and ultimately, back to Haven. Once inside the relative safety of the city's walls, they donned yet another 'borrowed' Zoomer and made haste for the Hideout for some much needed R&R.
The Bizarre was much less busy today, then again it was much earlier in the morning than the day before. Sake was disappointed to see that the man with the bracelet wasn't at his stall, which was closed up tighter than a bank vault. Ah well. Pushing the thoughts aside, she followed Jak through the much thinner crowds deep into the Bizarre's inner reaches. He seemed twitchy.
"Jak, something on your mind?"
"We're being followed." He said firmly, not skipping a beat as he swiftly weaved his way through the pockets of shoppers. Daxter knew well enough not to look, which would alert their tail that they were onto him.
"What?-"
"Not so loud. He started following us when we entered the district" Jak didn't turn back, but Sake could see someone out of the corner of her eye, weaving gracefully through the still packed streets of the Market.
"You think he's with the Baron?"
"No way of knowing. Let's find out, shall we? Through here." They took an immediate detour through a narrow alley between two of the buildings, just barely dodging a deluge of water as someone poured a bucket from a third story window. They quickly rounded around a corner, then another and another but with each turn, their mysterious shadow seemed to follow them effortlessly. The teens crossed a courtyard tucked into the alley, slipping into yet another dark, cool corridor between two buildings. Once Jak was sure that he'd led the stranger on a wild enough goose-chase, he took point at the exit to the alley while Sake took the other. Several seconds passed and the man came rushing out of alley, only to find himself pinned to the ground as both teens pounced.
"Why are you following us?!" Jak barked, unsheathing his knife and placing it to the man's throat in a blink of an eye.
"Rot in Hell, freak! You and your little Underground friends are finished, especially when I tell the Baron where you've been hiding!" the man barked, and Jak barely caught himself in time when he felt something hard smash into the side of his head. Sake was thrown free too, unable to hold the wiry individual down. When both of them came to, he was on his feet and already making for the nearest wall, throwing himself up with great speed before latching onto the edge of a balcony and pulling himself up, only to keep scaling upward. A cap fell from his head, revealing a bald scalp with tattoos.
"I recognize him-saw him this morning, at the Hideout!" Sake barked.
"Follow from the ground, I follow him on the rooftops!" Jak pulled Daxter from his shoulder, almost throwing him at Sake, then gave chase, scaling the face of the building as the stranger reached the top. Sake did as told and chased after them on the ground, diving through more narrow alleyways, dodging clothes lines and crates, and startling more than a handful of Havenites out for their morning chores. Every few feet she'd glance up and see the shadows pass overhead as they leaped between buildings and over gaps.
Along the way, the chase took a sharp turn that left Sake at the end of a gated alley, forcing her to go diving through the kitchen of a resturaunt, then through its main hall, much to the surprise of those dining in.
"SORRY!" She shrieked, vaulting over a table, much to her own surprise at how massively awesome that move was. Once back out onto the streets, she stormed through crowds, doing her best to simply sweep them aside instead of pushing them away while still following the chase as best she could.
Jak grunted, struggling to push himself as hard as possible. He wasn't used to the uneven terrain the buildings provided, and despite running as fast as he could and climbing as quickly as he could, the man still seemed to outmaneuver him.
Up one wall, down another, across a narrow pipe, over a gap, then another- The blond couldn't grasp the concept of someone being able to negotiate such an environment so well, even though it was happening before his eyes. There were multiple occasions where he nearly slipped and fell, but was able to recover before meeting the ground stories below.
Far ahead, the man came to a screeching halt, poised atop the edge a five story apartment building and looking down at the streets beneath. Jak skidded to a stop mere feet from the man, chest heaving and burning from exhaustion but he was still ready for a fight. His gun would prove useless as the man could have easily evaded, though his surroundings had been littered with all manners of potted plants, glass jars, and a fountain; each of which could be useful in a fight.
"Tired already? And Torn really thinks you punks can take down the Baron? Pathetic." The man sneered, raising a hand and beckoning to Jak.
"Oh no, I'm just getting started.." Jak grinned a too-wide smirk, diving for the man who easily avoided his charge, jumping high in the air, flipping end over end before landing behind him, but the blond wasn't so easily confused, pivoting quickly to throw a volley of swift punches. Each met a forearm, the man quickly parrying or deflecting the blows, while Jak fought to keep from being decked himself.
His opponent finally landed a healthy blow to his jaw, sending Jak reeling sideways as his legs were swept out from under him. The renegade quickly recovered, using his legs for momentum to get back to his feet only to dodge yet another punch. He grabbed the man's arm, twisting and pulling with the hopes of throwing him off balance. Instead the man allowed himself to go down, pulling the teen with him. Jak barely had the time to think before another punch slammed into the ground where his head had just been, and he reached for a pot of flowers, hurling it toward the stranger's head. It met its mark, shattering into pieces and showering the both of them in a storm of dirt and roots.
The man stumbled, shaking his head as he stood before growling and charging at Jak, the two meeting as he felt himself come off the ground and slammed into a wall hard. Raising one arm, he rammed his elbow into the man's back repeatedly, then kicked him back with both feet as he pushed off the wall. The push gave him plenty of air, which he used to put more force behind his fist which he brought down like a sledge hammer, only to have it grabbed and redirected. He hit the ground and slid, only stopped by the fountain as he hit the back of his head.
His vision swam and almost instantly he had the urge to vomit as pain blossomed from the point of impact. Suddenly he felt himself being lifted by his hair, then the cold wetness of water as the man plunged his head into the fountain's depths. Instantly water filled his lungs and he fought hard against the man's force. Desperate and losing, he flailed one arm back, thankful when his elbow struck the man square in the face. When the man let go to stumble back, Jak rose and took a moment to cough up the water, grunting and gasping for air all at once.
He'd manage to hit the man pretty hard, and his nose was obviously broken, bent in an odd direction. A large cut stretched from the man's scalp to his chin bone where the flower pot had made impact, drooling crimson as blood gushed from his nose.
"I've stuck around long enough, Playtime is over." Before Jak could react, he was staring down the barrel of a sleek but boxy black pistol. The stranger was retreating slowly toward the edge of the building with a grin. With one foot, then the other, he perched precariously on the edge as a stiff cross wind blew. "I think its high time I let the Baron in on our little secret, mm?" Then he began to tilt backwards.
"You're not going anywhere!" Jak barked, using what was left of his energy to dive for the man who was already over the edge. His hand caught the man's clothes, and Jak felt himself being pulled over. The fall lasted a fraction of a second and Jak waited for the sudden stop at the bottom. It came, but it was softened by something, the body of the man who now laid lifeless below him, the fall severing his spine instantly..
Just as Jak stood slowly, Sake came careening around the corner, slowing when she saw the man dead on the ground and Jak mostly unscathed aside from a dislocated shoulder, a busted lip and several cuts and bruises.
"Search him." Jak demanded, nursing his shoulder while trying to fix it. Sake knelt down and began checking the man's pockets, retrieving his communicator and a small booklet filled with writing, no doubt observations on the Underground and its movements. She pocketed that, along with the man's pouch of money chits and Security pass which had his name on it: Blayde. What kind of name was Blayde?
"At the very least it'll look like a robbery gone wrong. We should get out of here." She insisted, helping Jak to his feet.
"I need your help. I can't fix this on my own." Jak grunted. Daxter looked worried, but not enough to alarm Sake. Obviously he'd been in this situation before. The trio fled from the man's crushed body, making their way into a nearby secluded alley. Jak immediately leaned against a wall and slid down, hissing in pain as he clenched his fists. "Alright Sake, Grab my elbow and wrist."
Sake swallowed, heart immediately racing. "Like this?" She gripped each in either hand.
"Yes. Now I'm going to lie back. Put your boot here." He pointed to his armpit. "Pull on my arm, slow and gentle." He said, face red as he sweated profusely.
"Okay.." She swallowed again, visibly nervous as she did as told. He breathed in sharply when she began pulling, almost yelping in pain when the joint finally slid back into its socket with an audible pop. Once done, she sighed heavily and Jak laid there, just panting.
"That wasn't so bad." He said with a laugh, then sat up while grunting loudly.
"Don't ever make me do that again!" Sake shrieked, hands shaking.
"You alright Jak?" Daxter said, head tilted.
"Yeah. Not the first time that shoulder's been messed up. I'll be fine. Lets get going before someone finds us here." Jak finally stood, rolling his shoulder with a wince. Sake was pretty sure he shouldn't be doing that, but if he knew his limits, she supposed he'd be fine.
"Agreed." With that, they set off back into the crowds, away from the corpse which was already drawing attention. A scream pierced the air, but the teens were already long gone.
A few blocks more and they found themselves in a dead end courtyard with a large aging tent tucked into the corner. The smells of incense and spice were rich in the air as the morning meandered into afternoon, bringing with it the unpleasant heat that settled over Haven like a plague. Bending a little, the teens entered the tent and soaked in the sights.
Daxter couldn't hide his curiosity as he prodded the body of a colorful monkaw hung from a wooden pole. "Cool, check out all the dead stuff!" Then the Ottsel yelped as the not-dead animal reached forward and snapped at his hand.
"Touch the goods again, Rat-Boy, and you'll be-ARRWWK, counting with your toes!" With a beat of its colorful wings, the monkaw flitted over to land in the large bowl shaped hat the artifact of a woman sitting in the center of the tent wore. "I am Pecker!"
Sake and Jak had to clench their jaws to swallow back the laughter. Daxter's face looked like it was about to crack as yet another grin parted his lips.
"Yes, I know. My mother- She was.. very vindictive." Pecker looked to the side, beating his finger-like feathers together thoughtfully. "I am Onin's interpreter!"
Onin was much older than either Jak or Sake had anticipated. She could have easily been more than a hundred, looking like little more than a skeleton with thin paled skin stretched over it. What wasn't almost white was speckled with dark age spots and moles while whatever skin was left hung lazily from her face, arms and.. chest. Sake tried her best not to gawk. Either way, this woman was certainly old enough to know what they needed to know.
Suddenly Onin clapped her hands together and a vivid blue light spread out like glittering dust. Then she waved her hands around, making symbols. "Onin welcomes you, blah blah blah blah- The usual boring salutations.. She says it is good to see you again Jak."
"But we've never met before." Jak scowled.
"Before- After, it is all the same." Pecker continued, glaring when Daxter interrupted them.
"Oh, Oh! Let me try! She wants a... A Yakkow bone! A Yakkow bladder?! No, No! I got it! For many moons.. she has waited for.. a juice pop? A Jewel shop?! Oh oh, I know! She has a hairball! A hair-lip? A hairy chest?!" Meanwhile, Pecker flew closer and landed on an old crate, crossing his wings elegantly.
"Close, but no!" he said with a flourish, monkey-like tail flicking and curling. "Onin says you seek answers about-AWWRRRRRK- the Tomb of Mar.." Onin waved a hand and the same yin and yang symbol from before now etched itself in the air out of fine points of blue light.
"So what do we need to know?" Sake asked, sounding at least a little intrigued.
Pecker squinted, as if trying to understand what Onin was saying. "She's going on and on about mystical energy channels, evil curses, stupid 'whoooooo' crap." The monkaw raised both wings into the air, waving the feathers about like a ghost. "But forget all that! I'm going to sum this up quickly because now you're cutting into my siesta time!"
Sake wondered why the hell a talking monkey-bird from a fictional-but-real world was speaking Spanish.
"Onin wants you to recover three artifacts from the Precursor Mountain Temple. Not two, not four- THREE." Onin signaled with her fingers. "Use the warp-gate at the northwest side of the City and bring back the three items you find." Pecker drifted over and once again landed in the woman's hat, folding his wings. Jak, Daxter and Sake turned to leave.
"Sake. Before you go. Onin has a question. Have you been displaced? She says her connection to you is weak, as if only part of you were here."
Sake froze in place, turning stiffly. Jak narrowed his eyes at her curiously. She couldn't think of anything to say in her defense, though the look on her face said volumes. Everything was silent, except for the sounds of bartering at a nearby stall. With a sigh, she turned and pushed passed Jak. He immediately grabbed her arm, looking her intently in the eyes but she pulled loose and stormed off into the crowds.
Not one to be blown off, Jak sprinted after her and took a firm grip on her shoulders. Sake tried to jerk lose again but he held fast and firm against her throws.
"Let go of me!"
A surge of violet energy crawled along her shoulders, sending a shock into Jak's hands. He yelped in surprise and pulled his hands back to nurse the sting. Sake took two steps backward as her eyes darted side to side nervously.
"No, Sake, wait, please!" Jak called to her as she turned and took off into the crowds but his calls were lost in the humid early evening air.
"Just let her go buddy. Must be 'that time of the month', or something. Heh." Daxter remarked more sarcastically than he meant it to sound, for once only to cower obediently under the searing glare from the blond renegade. With a sheepish grin and a disheartened laugh, the Ottsel clammed up tighter than a virgin.
"Of course she chose the worst time to run off. I need her for this temple shake-down. Dax, do you know where she'd go?"
"Huh? Oh.. Uh.. well, Um.. Sake told me not to say anything to you or Torn but.. She's been visiting Tess every so often." Daxter seemed to shrink on Jak's shoulder, tail curled around his ankles with his long ears flat against his skull, the still nervous smile parting his lips. He expected Jak to rip him a new one for withholding that kind of information.
"Where at?" The Ottsel wasn't sure if Jak's calm demeanor was alarming or relaxing; the blond's expression was almost unreadable.
"The HipHog. Tess took a job there to spy on Ole' Tub o' Butter-WOAH!" Before Daxter could brace himself on Jak's pauldron, Jak had taken off with a fire lit under his feet, all the while scanning the crowd for any signs of Sake.
A/N: Chapter 15 and 16 will be up in a few weeks at the latest, once I have updates written for CC and MIB again. I may also work in an update for Born For This. I also have two new stories in the works- a one shot that was supposed to be for a Halloween JnD Contest on Deviantart that I missed the deadline for by a longshot, and a crossover between JnD and Mass effect(No Sake, sorry, tho she'll have a cameo as she does in most of my work!)
So be on the lookout for all of that! See you then!